Weak hearts and strong arms
by typhoidcandy
Summary: And now he is the boy who is climbing through her bedroom window in the dead of the night. Gale/Madge, set during CF.


**A/N: **Here, have some Gadge feels! Also posted this on Ao3, but wanted it here too.

Based off this graphic: post/29636326936/i-just-wanted-to-see-you

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Sleep doesn't come quite so easily to Madge anymore. Her mind is filled with too many dreadful thoughts these days for her to actually get a good nights rest. No matter how much she tosses and turns or how many glasses of warm milk she drank, she could just never fall asleep. It isn't until her own thoughts exhaust her overly active mind that she is able to get some sleep.

She lies in her bed staring up at the dark ceiling. The thoughts that ran through her mind were often the same as the previous night. Thoughts of her mother who was growing increasingly more ill. Thoughts of her father who was becoming more and more restless with the new head Peacekeeper. Thoughts of Katniss and Peeta who would be returning to the Arena to fight once more in the Hunger Games. Thoughts of the Capitol, which was becoming more and more frightening with each passing day. Thoughts of Gale… who was invading her mind more than she'd care to admit.

Gale—he merely started out as the boy who brought her strawberries with Katniss. Then he quickly became a friend—and something so much more—after Katniss left for the Hunger Games. Then just as quickly as he became her friend, he became the boy who broke her heart when Katniss returned from certain death. And now he is the boy who is climbing through her bedroom window in the dead of the night.

Madge practically threw the covers off her and jumped out of her bed. Was she really so distracted with her thoughts that she couldn't hear someone climbing up her house to get to her window? Or maybe Gale was just that good at being silent. He is a hunter after all.

"Gale?" She whispers in uncertainty. She has to take a moment to wonder if this is actually Gale standing in front of her or if it's just the lack of sleep making her see things. "What are you doing here?"

Gale says nothing at first and just stares at her with his hard eyes. She shifts uncomfortably under his gaze. She's wearing only a white cotton nightdress—nothing else. Regardless, he always intimidated her. Even when he didn't mean to.

"I just wanted to see you." He finally says. He steps away from her window and takes a step closer to her. Even with just the moon as her source of light, she can see the redness in his face from scaling her house.

"Oh." She replies dumbly. "You shouldn't have overexerted yourself. I would have come down." She says trying not to wince as she remembers his whipping just a few days ago. How was he even able to climb up her house with wounds like that?

He quirks an eyebrow. "Would you have really come down?" He asks skeptically.

She looks down at her bare feet and let's out a soft sigh. "No, probably not."

Madge tries not to think of the last time he was in her bedroom. Unlike now, it was in the middle of the day—her father was doing business at the Justice Building and her mother was lost in her drug-induced world. The day involved heavy kissing and some touching in her bed. She tries pushing away the memory of his warm rough lips hovering over his skin. She tries to forget feeling safe in his arms. She tries to forget everything as she looks back up at him.

Gale towers over her as he stands mere inches away from her now. Madge has to crane her neck just to look into his eyes. He says nothing, just stares down at her lips. She wonders if he's remembering that day too. She selfishly hopes that he is. She wants him to remember her the way she does of him. Before he left. Before he dropped everything that they had in favor of his best friend. And Madge closes her eyes for a moment, forcing those thoughts far away. She doesn't want to be bitter. She cares about Katniss too.

"What are you doing here, Gale?" She asks him again.

Gale looks into her large cerulean eyes then. He reaches out and takes a lock of her golden hair in-between his index finger and thumb. Her hair feels like silk. He remembers the first time he ran his calloused fingers through those golden tresses. He'd never felt something so soft and wonderful. He could run his fingers through it for the rest of his life and be content.

"You brought me morphling." He mutters getting lost in the softness of her hair.

Madge stiffens a little. She doesn't want to remember that horrifying day. It was agonizing hearing each crack of the whip and then watching it be brought down onto Gale's already bloody back. Running through the snow to get the morphling to the Everdeen's house was the worst and slowest ten minutes of her entire life. She never wanted to go through anything like it again. But she knew that if it were to happen to Gale again, she would do it all over again. It's a scary thought knowing that she would do anything for him.

"They told me." He continues. "The Everdeen's told me you brought me the morphling in the snow storm. You could have died."

Madge rolls her eyes. That is an overstatement. She doesn't think that she could have died. It was just a little snowstorm. She was more worried about his wellbeing than of her own anyway.

"Yes." She whispers nonetheless. There was no point in arguing with him.

"Why did you do that, Madge?" He asks letting go of her hair.

"Why?" She repeats missing his fingers on her hair.

"Yes, why?"

"Why wouldn't I do it?" She asks and he actually looks confused.

"After… after what happened I didn't think you'd care much for me anymore." He says honestly.

"Gale, just because we went our separate ways doesn't mean I care about you any less." She tells him earnestly. "No matter what happened between us you're still my friend."

He takes a step back from her and that movement hurts her a little. "Friend?" He asks. "You think of me as your friend?"

Madge shrugs. "I guess."

"You guess?" He questions giving her a strange look causing her to become frustrated with him.

"Oh Gale, what do you want from me?" She snaps.

"I want you to tell me why you brought me the morphling." He bites back.

"I already told you!" She whispers fiercely fearing they were getting too loud. "And keep your voice down."

He ignores her last statement. "You're not telling me the truth! I know you don't consider me a friend. You never did!"

Madge glares daggers at him. "Just because _you _didn't consider me a friend doesn't mean I—"

"Cut the crap, Madge!"

"Keep your voice down!" She practically growls at him.

"Tell me the truth!" He barks back.

"Because I love you!" She finally says. Both their eyes go wide at her confession, but she's the first to recover. "There! Are you happy now?"

"No." He replies quickly only causing more frustration on Madge's part.

"Oh Gale, just go aw—"

She's cut off when Gale grabs her face and crushes his lips to hers. Madge is too shell-shocked to react, but he pulls away before she can. "Now I'm happy."

Madge stares at him astounded. "Wh-why did you do that?" She stutters.

He gives her a soft smile. "Because I just may love you back, Undersee."

Before she can respond to his own shocking confession, Gale kisses her again. It's soft and gentle at first, but then his hands reach for her face again and he attempts to deepen it. This time Madge reacts and rises on her tiptoes to go further with the kiss. Gale lifts her up off the floor and nips at her bottom lip asking for entrance. She gladly gives it to him. Their tongues swirl together hungrily as Gale carries her over to the bed. He gently rests her down onto it and brings himself down with her—their lips never leaving each other's.

Madge feels like she's flying. Feels like she's in another world. A world with no Hunger Games, no dying friends or mothers, no despair. Just paradise and Gale. His kisses always took her to another place—a better place. It's when he pulls away from her that the fear sets in and the paranoia consumes her.

"You're going to leave again." She whispers shakily looking up at him with watery eyes. She hates that she sounds so weak. She wants to be stronger than this.

"No." Gale tells her soothingly. "No, you didn't leave me. I won't leave you. Never again." He promises lightly kissing her face.

And just like that the fear disappears. She feels the fear should still be there. That Gale could leave at any moment. That he could leave and move on with his life without her in it But he's here now and she feels safe. She's never felt so safe.

"Will you hold me?" She asks timidly, her soft azure eyes looking up into stormy grey ones imploringly.

Gale nods once. "Yes, always." He whispers kissing her forehead. "Always."

He takes his place beside her and Madge sighs in content when Gale's large arms wrap around her small body. She buries her face into his shirt while he buries his into her hair. He smells of the earth and she smells of wild strawberries.

Madge wonders how one person can make you feel so completely safe. How one person can make all of your fears go away just by holding you. What she does know is that she has never slept as well as she did in Gales arms.


End file.
